Well, the 30-Day Bento Challenge has come to an end.  I must say that it was a wonderful experience for me.  Not just trying to meet my goals, but to watch my readers and participants work on and meet their goals.  It certainly made me realize that I’m not the only one out there struggling to do what they set their mind to.  Willpower and I don’t have a great working relationship.

I always believe it important to be forthright with myself and take a look at how I did at something.  Let’s remind ourselves of my original goals.

1.  No eating out more than 3 days this month.  And eating out must have purpose, not just because I’m feeling lazy or “too busy.”  – You might find this a cheat, but I know I have things coming up this month that will force me to eat at a restaurant.  I have a monthly meeting at work that involves an out-to-eat meal.  No problem.  That has purpose.  I have family members visiting from California this month.  This may require an eat-out-meal.  Again, it has purpose.  But no more than 3 days.
2. Eat-out meals are defined as fast-food, take out, or meals at a restaurant.  They do not include going to a family members house for dinner.  – Hey, it’s Easter time.  Family time in my area with big meals coming up.  However, each are homecooked affairs.  So they fall in the realm of not eating out to my mind.
3. Make a bento for everyday that I work, including those that I only work in the evenings.
4. Post a bento picture Monday – Friday on this blog.

If I had to rate myself on how I did on my challenge, I’d give myself a C.  I did middle of the road, and that’s how I view a C.  Amazingly, I completed both goals 1 and 2.  I was super pleased with myself for that.  If you read my Leftover Deliciousness post, you know that I didn’t end up eating out with my family when my out-of-state relatives came to visit.  All the events planned this go ’round were family meal affairs.  Not only were they delicious meals, they fit into this 30-Day challenge.  Thank you goes out to my family.  They didn’t intentionally do that, but thanks are given all the same.  I ate out no more than the 3 times allotted this month.  I can’t even describe what an accomplishment this was for me.

Goal 3 I accomplished mainly.  This was a strict rule that in retrospect I find I could have done without.  While I didn’t pack a bento box each day, I didn’t eat out.  Sometimes, it was just a sandwich on a plate with chips and fruit.  This goal I came to realize ended up being a bit too strict when it came to trying to accomplish goal number 1.  In the end, I just shrugged and told myself, “That’s why you blog is called Not Exactly Bento, Jennifer!”

Goal 4 was the one I really failed at completing.  When life got busy, I just let the pictures slide by.  This is the one that I really regret.  My intent for the photographs was to have a documentation of how I did.  Next time I do this (and there will be a next time), I’ve got to find a way to stick with this goal.

How did you all do with your goals?  I’d really like to know.  Judging by the comments, I can tell that each of you seemed to come back and talk about your trials and triumphs.  Thank you for that.  You kept me going even when I wasn’t completely present here at this blog.

Now, on the winners.  Before I announce them, I need to make you all aware of a change in the rules I decided upon while about half way into the challenge.  Only one person posted their country of origin in their comments.  Otherwise, I have no clue where every one lives.  My original intent was to have a big prize that would go to a U.S. resident and a smaller (easier-to-ship) prize that would go to a non-U.S. resident.  However since no one posted their country of origin, I have no idea where anyone lives.  And quite frankly, I didn’t want to hold up the announcement of the winner by trying to contact each entrant to ask that question.  So, I’m instituting the “my blog, my perogative to change my mind” rule that runs this place.  I just simply chose to people randomly.  Wherever in the world these prizes go, happy sailing.

As mentioned in the original rules for the challenge, participants would receive an entry for every day they commented, limited to 1 entry per day.  After tabulating everyone’s comments, I had 107 unique comments made on separate days by our participants.  Thank you again for your participation.  Tonight, I ran the list through Random.org to find two winning numbers. 

The first number drawn was for the big bento box package.  It goes to:

Dawn, congrats.  You do deserve this prize!  I think you posted nearly every day of the challenge, definitely tipping the odds into your favor.  And, it was so much more than just making sure you came by to post and get your entry in.  You shared bento-packing tips, pictures of your lunches, and general encouragement to everyone.  I truly hope you enjoy your prizes!  If you want to see some of Dawn’s lunches, check out her Flickr account.  I’m not a charaben bento packer, but I do admire them.  Dawn has some really nice boxes.  Her KISS band bento box still cracks me up.

Our second winner is Eula.  Congrats Eula.  You win the smaller bento box set! 

Dawn & Eula, please e-mail me with your mailing addresses to nebento at cox dot net. 

As for everyone else, thank you so much for participating.  And watch out for Monday.  I have a whole new challenge I’m going to announce, and it’s going to be way easier than this one!

Be the bento everyone!